DANVILLE — After May’s elections, a familiar character maintains the gavel at the Yell County Courthouse.

Mark Thone, first elected in May of 2010, was re-elected May 20 for a third term as Yell County Judge.

Born, raised and graduated high school in Dardanelle, Thone received 1,421 votes, more than 63 percent. Thone said he is honored by the support he has from the people of Yell County.

“I was humbled by the voting numbers,” Thone said. “To have the people come and vote and support me is very gratifying. It’s encouraging to know that they think I’m doing a good job.”

Thone, who achieved a bachelor’s degree in political science and business from the University of Central Arkansas, said his candidacy for the county judge role came as a surprise.

“The former judge asked me if I would be interested in running for the position, because he wasn’t going to run again,” Thone said. “I really hadn’t considered anything like that until that point.”

An experienced campaigner, Thone recalled his first election run as “long and tiring, but a lot of fun.”

“Most of the campaign work takes place at night, so it can be hard,” Thone said. “You work all day, then you go to local fire department dinners and civic club meetings. That’s where you get to do a lot of introductions and small speeches.

“It really was a lot of fun. We went all over the county, even to the far ends. I met people I never thought I would meet and made new friends. I talked to a lot of people and listened to them and talked about their problems. That was the best part of campaigning, and it still is.”

Thone said he waited in the courthouse for the results on his first election day. When the votes were tabulated and Thone was announced as the new judge, he said he felt a variety of emotions.

“I was excited that I won, but I was very relieved that the campaign was over, too,” he said. “On the other hand, there was the realization that you have to get to work on all the things you talked about during the campaign.”

Between Election Day and January 2010, when Thone took office for the first time, he said he spent much of his free time preparing for his new job.

“Any free time that I had I tried to devote to the job,” Thone said. “I spent time with the commissioners, engineers and the others, just so I knew as much about the county and its issues that I could.”

Thone entered office with a goal in mind — to treat everybody the same from one side of the county to the other. Everything that needed work, Thone set a goal to have it fixed. That goal is still very much alive.

“We’ve got some road projects planned, and we are trying to finish up some jobs with the Forestry Service,” Thone said. “But for now, our biggest development project is our new jail facility. We are about to start breaking ground on that project.”

With the people of Yell County behind him and many projects ahead, Thone said he is grateful for all of the support.

“I’d just like to say a big thank you to the people of Yell County for supporting me,” Thone said. “If they need anything, they should feel free to call and we will always do what we can.”